Jonathan Trott hit 108 as Warwickshire beat Northants by five runs in a last-ball NatWest Pro40 thriller.

Ably supported by Jim Troughton (87) and some awful Northants bowling, Trott helped the Bears to 271-4 at Edgbaston.

Northants put on 79 for the first wicket in reply, but struggled against the burgeoning run rate.

Rikki Wessels and Lance Kluesner hit a flurry of late boundaries to give them hope, but needing six off the last ball Kluesner could only muster a single.

Although the visitors lost on the last ball, they will surely reflect that the foundations for their third straight Pro40 defeat were planted during their abysmal performance in the field.

Captain Nicky Boje used six bowlers, but none were able to muster any great control and Andrew Hall was thoroughly flattered by bowling figures of 3-69 from seven overs.

With sloppy fielding - typified by Boje allowing a Trott drive through his legs for the four that brought up his century - adding further to the malaise, the Warwickshire batsmen simply had to wait for the bad balls, of which there were plenty.

Trott thrived on anything wide as he recorded a fourth century of the summer, putting on 167 with Troughton for the second wicket.

The partnership was eventually broken by Hall, but Darren Maddy's 38 from 20 balls heaped more misery on Northants.

Stephen Peters (57) and Niall O'Brien got Northants off to a solid start and Rob White's 62 ensured they remained in contention.

But a tight spell from Ian Salisbury, whose eight overs went for 32, was instrumental in seeing the run rate climb to around 16 an over.

Wessels (54), Kluesner and, after Wessels had holed out, Johannes Van der Wath were brutal late on, hitting one Neil Carter over for 19.

But the bowler had the last laugh, keeping his nerve in the final over and bowling a yorker off the last ball to leave Kluesner with no chance to lever another maximum.